


Lucky Discovery

by Duscara



Series: Kinnis Universe Tetralogy [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Adoption, Canon LGBTQ Character, Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, F/F, G/T, GTS, Gentle Giantess, Giant Boy, Giant Woman, Giant father, Giant/Tiny, Giantess woman, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Female Character, Not a Crossover, One Big Happy Family, Ratings: PG, Tiny Person, Tiny people, gentle giant, giant brother, giant dad, giant girl, giant man - Freeform, giant mom, giant mother, giant sister, giant tiny - Freeform, giantess girl, giantess mom, giantess mother, giantess sister, tiny girl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27085168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duscara/pseuds/Duscara
Summary: This is the story of an orphan Kinnis girl who was found by the human family she secretly lived with. They decided to raise her as their own.
Relationships: Kaly Cookie/Luna Burton, Martha Cookie/Zander Cookie
Series: Kinnis Universe Tetralogy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913272
Kudos: 3





	1. Middle Child

**Author's Note:**

> This story starts before the beginning of Hopeful Future. Before the end, it catches up to it, though a lot of time skips happen in Chapter 1 alone. By the end, it goes past the end date of Hopeful Future.
> 
> I said that I would ask which story people wanted first. The options were this or a more distant prequel. No one said anything, and I can see why. I'm not popular enough. Due to that, I chose to release this first.
> 
> I shifted it around so this was considered the first part of the "Kinnis Universe" series because it starts earlier. Once this ended, I started to upload a more distant prequel to Hopeful Future that explains how the knowledge of Kinnises' existence stopped being a secret. Oddly, that doesn't have too much impact on the later stories in this universe.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is when the Kinnis girl was discovered and adopted.

The year was 2014. A married couple, who had an eight year old daughter and a one year old son, heard sounds that were a lot like voices in their walls. Rather than call an exterminator, they opened up part of the walls out of curiosity. Inside, there were three very tiny creatures that looked to be human, except they were each less than six inches tall, as well as having mouse ears, tails, and wings that reminded them of dragonfly wings. The two larger ones were dead, and when Zander Cookie, the father of then one child, tried to touch them, he got a terrifying vision of a helmet that gave him supernatural fear. When his wife, Martha Cookie, tried that, she also experienced that. 

The only one alive was a very young child who was about two years old, and as she pushed her blankets covering her body away, they realized that she was so tiny that any normal human at least as old as a toddler could eat her. They shuddered at the thought, trying to comfort her as she started crying, which they could hear like a normal baby crying despite her size. Despite knowing what the law could count it as, they felt compelled to raise her as another child. They had to come up with a name, and they came up with the name Kalybrari. Zander said, “Teeny tiny baby, you are now Kalybrari Cookie.” 

Martha placed her hand out, and the child now known as Kalybrari walked onto it while making gibberish vocalizations. They realized she was not yet mature enough to know how to talk, but they decided take her to their room, where they would watch over her until she was independent. 

Kaly, as Kalybrari liked to be called once she could talk, was kept inside for her early life. She was fond of being in her parents’ hands or pockets, feeling safe there. She was home schooled for years because her new parents feared terrible things would happen to her if she went to a public school. She grew up fast, and three months after she was discovered, her adopted mother gave birth to another child. Once they figured out how old she was, she was the middle sibling to an older sister, Kit Cookie, and a younger brother, Magnus Cookie. He was born before she was discovered, but she was still older than him. 

Kit learned how to make doll clothes because she wanted to help out her little sister. She made a blue dress with long sleeves, a long skirt that went down to her ankles, with some red details on the top part and yellow details for the skirt. 

One day in 2015, when Kaly was four and her dad was in the master bedroom with her, she asked, “Daddy, what is your job?” 

Zander replied, “I’m a captain of a cruise ship. Many of the people I work with call me Captain Cookie.” 

“What is that?” 

“Do you know what a boat is?” 

“I think so. Are those vehicles that are designed for water?” 

“Right on, Kaly! Cruise ships are large boats that can have a lot of people on them at once.” 

Once Kaly turned six in 2017, she was only barely above three inches tall. Kit had made a new dress to fit her at that age, and she was now in elementary school. Once she entered, most of the kids in classes with her didn’t notice her. However, one girl walked up to her and asked, “Can we be friends? No one else seems to notice you, and I don’t want you to be lonely, mouse fairy.” 

The tiny girl replied, “Don’t hurt me!” 

“I won’t.” 

“Okay!” 

After that, the girls hugged each other. Kaly said, “What’s your name?” 

“I’m Luna Burton. And you are…?” 

“Oh! Kalybrari Cookie. Please, call me Kaly.” 

“That’s a funny name.” 

She was not fond of that remark, but forgave her. Over the course of several months, the two girls formed a strong friendship, though Kaly had feelings towards her that were difficult to describe.


	2. First Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaly makes a new friend named Theo Sparks. She and her mother go to his birthday party.

Kaly made more friends in school, like Theo Sparks, a boy who was careful and gentle with her, like Luna. One day, she was surprised to see Theo invite her to his birthday party at Wovl’s Pizza and Games. Curious as to what it was, she asked Kit, “Big sis Kit, what is ‘Wovl’s Pizza and Games?’” 

“It’s a place mainly directed at kids around your or Magnus’ ages. I think you’d like it. It has a pizzeria, a stage show, an arcade, and an indoor playground.” 

“I’ll take your word for it, then!” 

Her mother drove herself and her younger daughter there, and as she arrived, she noticed that there were several people, Theo among them, standing near something she did not understand. She asked her mom, “What’s going on, Mommy?” 

She replied, “This place uses tokens to play most of, if not all of the games. One token is about the same value as a quarter, which is not surprising because arcade machines used to require players to insert actual quarters.” 

“Why would people pay just to play games like these?” 

“It’s how arcades used to earn money, dear, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ah… those were the days.” 

Theo noticed Kaly and said, “Oh! There’s a new friend of mine. She’s so tiny!” 

Kaly replied, “Can you please not say that? I don’t like it even though it’s accurate.” 

“Well, this is my party-” 

“Theo!” His father shouted with a raised voice. 

“Alright, Daddy.” 

Martha brought a present to it, as she knew not doing it would be frowned upon and Kaly had forgotten. As she set her present with the others, Theo’s father said, “Everyone, you each get eight tokens. Feel free to spend them how you like. After you run out of tokens, meet back here for the cake and pizzas.” 

Kaly asked, “Mommy, can you carry me around?” 

“If you can’t get far on your own, I might. Can you fly with your wings?” 

“No, I can’t, I tried at one point, and all I could do was slow my fall or… glide? Is that the right word for it?” 

“Oh. Since you can’t fly, I’ll carry you around.” 

“Thanks! You didn’t answer my question, though.” 

“I don’t remember seeing you glide.” 

She noticed a game where you hit buttons to knock over rubber ducks. She decided to play it, since it was only one token. She struggled with it, as she couldn’t get from one button to the other fast enough. 

After that, her mother noticed an older game from 1980 called “Luck-Man” and she ran to it. She put the token in, then spent what felt like a long time to her daughter playing it. It was a game where the player played as a pizza missing a slice that ate dots in a maze while avoiding ghosts. Once her mother ran out of lives, she decided to try it. Since it used a joystick, she could move it easier, but it was hard for her to move the joystick and focus on the screen at the same time. She did not get as far, but she got to a cutscene, so she was okay. 

After they took turns playing arcade games until they ran out of tokens, they went back to the table, with the cake and two pizzas already there. Once the others arrived, the guests sung the “Happy Birthday” song, then started eating the cake and slices of the pizzas. Kaly did not like the taste of the pizzas, but ate them anyway because she knew that spitting them out would be rude not only because she was at a friend’s party, but also because she was at a public location. She got full fast from both cake and pizza because her appetite was tiny compared to a human of similar maturity. She decided to look at the animatronic characters, and while their stiff movement was a bit creepy to her, she knew they were harmless. 

The one in the center of the stage was an anthropomorphic wolf character who wore a tank top and shorts. His name was Wovl Chroma, and he was the mascot. To the left of Wovl, there was a tiger character named Angie who wore a t-shirt, skirt, and shorts. To his right, there was Tammy, and anthropomorphic rat character who was one of two girls, Angie being the other. To the left of Angie, there was a dolphin character in a wheelchair with a joystick. He wore a Hawaiian t-shirt and swimming trunks on his tail fluke. His name was Eko. The remaining character was a bear who wore a vest, a bowtie, a top hat, overalls that looked to be made of denim, and shades covering his eyes. His name was FaZeBeAr. When a worker came by, Kaly asked him, “Sir, why is that bear here?” 

“We made a deal with an esports group, and as per the terms of the contract, even after it expired, we could keep him around.” 

“I think I understand.” 

She also noticed two other characters near the top corners of the stage. One of them, to the right, was a sun with arms and a face. The other, to the left, was a moon with a face, arms, and legs. 

After the food, the time came for presents to be opened. Martha got Theo a figure of a popular character from a massively popular horror game, which also had the head and torso of a different and scarier character in it. The other presents were bought for similar prices. Once all of the presents were opened, they heard things breaking. To Kaly’s horror, other people were starting a brawl in the location. The guests, the birthday boy, and their families fled successfully. 

Kaly decided that she wouldn’t return to the place, not feeling safe there any longer. Once they got back to their house, Martha said to her two other kids, “The party was alright for me. Your sister struggled with the arcade games, and she forgot to give him a present, so I just bought one from the local Bullseye. Right after the final present was opened, strangers started fighting each other. We managed to escape without injury, though.” 

Wanting to get off of that subject, Magnus looked at his older sister and said, “It’s a good thing we don’t have any cats.” 

Their mother said, “There’s a reason for that. Besides the fact that one might try to eat my tiny daughter, we learned the hard way that Kit is allergic to cats.” 

Kaly said, “I’ve heard that allergies can lead to sneezing.” 

Martha replied, “Oh, sweetie. Allergies are complex. Some can be mild, while some can be lethal. Some people are also allergic to certain foods. Some have it mild enough to only suffer reactions if they eat it, but others suffer reactions just by being too close, and some of those reactions can be deadly.” 

Her middle child said, “So, how did big sis Kit react to that cat?” 

Her mother, the only one there who would remember that, replied, “She didn’t sneeze a lot due to that allergy. Instead, she started itching all over her body. It was mild enough to not be deadly, but she cannot have cats for that reason.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it’s not obvious, Wovl’s Pizza and Games was based on Chuck E. Cheese’s. It’s complete with an arcade, animatronic characters on a stage, a pizzeria, and some things for younger kids to play with. I’ve heard the pizza isn’t very good, so I decided to have the pizza at Wovl’s not be the best. The animatronic characters are fragile for safety reasons, like real ones. I had people brawl there because those apparently do happen in the real location.
> 
> Luck-Man is supposed to be like Pac-Man in real life. In all of my worlds, it is the counterpart to that. Players play as an actual pizza without a slice that has to eat dots and power pellets to clear each course while avoiding ghosts.
> 
> At one point, I was going to write a story called How To Maintain Your Pizzeria. It would have focused on a manager of a pizzeria based on the pizzeria in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator, which I call FNaF 6 due to it really being that disguised as a spin-off. At least, there would have been another location in that pizzeria chain that would be closely mimicking what the pizzeria in that game is like with all of the permanent upgrades (ones that are automatically placed in the pizzeria upon purchase, and with things that upgrade, the highest levels are used). I would have joked that the other location is just one large room, with no kitchen, no regular dining (all of the dining is for parties, but FNaF 1 and FNaF 2 only had party dining and not regular dining in their pizzerias as well), no bathrooms, and so on. The main location would have more of those features. I decided to make the animatronic characters all fully dressed mammals. The mascot was going to be Wovl Chroma, an anthropomorphic wolf who wore a tank top and pants. There would have been two girls. I decided one of them would be a female tiger named Angie, and she had a similar, if not identical outfit to the one that appears in this story. The other girl was a rat named Tammy, and she also was fully dressed. There was a joke character named FaZeBeAr based on a combination of “Fazbear” from Freddy Fazbear and the “FaZe” part of FaZe Clan. Their fictional counterparts made a deal with Wovl’s, and the pizzeria chain wrote it in a way that let them keep him around even after the rest of the contract had expired. Eko the dolphin was going to be in a wheelchair as a reference to a playable character from Goat Simulator: PAYDAY. That character is also a dolphin in a wheelchair. Mine, though, awkwardly wears shorts on his tail fluke, and he has a Hawaiian shirt with his flippers in the arm holes. He uses a joystick to move due to his flippers being no good for moving the wheelchair by using the wheels. On the animatronic, though, the joystick is not real. They were in a layout like certain Chuck E Cheese’s animatronic show stages, specifically the ones with all five major characters on one stage. Like the 3-Stage Chuck E Cheese’s locations that were converted from Showbiz Pizza Place locations, there are two prop characters. Like the Rock-afire Explosion characters those stages used to have, one is called the Sun, and the other is called the Moon. Unlike that, mine are Mr. Shine the moon and Mr. Bright the sun, both from Kirby. The two are always together in the games that they appear in, and they’re bosses that are always fought at the same time. Mine serve as announcers and sing backup vocals.
> 
> The action figure from the massively popular horror game is supposed to be the action figure of Foxy from Five Nights at Freddy’s made by Funko. The one in real life comes with the head and torso of Springtrap, and mine does, too. That was a gimmick to make you want to get all of the ones of that wave. That line has Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Golden Freddy, and they all cost the same, about $20. All of them except Foxy came with one of Springtrap's limbs. It's possible that the Foxy action figures were the most popular of that specific wave not only due to Foxy's popularity among the fandom, but also due to it coming with the biggest and best piece of Springtrap.


	3. Kaly's First Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two years after what happened at Wovl's Pizza and Games, Kaly gets an invitation to Luna's birthday party at Rolly's Fun Center.
> 
> Before that, though, Kaly's parents learn the truth of her heritage with the help of a character that debuted in Hopeful Future.

Kaly was reeling from what happened at Wovl’s for over two years, and she did not do as well in school for that duration. Rather than get ‘A’s, ‘B’s, and ‘C’s, she was steadily getting ‘C’s and ‘D’s. She still managed to pass her classes, but she kept replaying what had happened in her mind over and over again. Kit had made a new dress for her to fit her growing body, and it was in a similar style to her previous dresses.

As this was happening, on a weekday where Zander and Martha were both away, something strange happened to them. 

Martha was at work in a room by herself, when a white, pink, and red sphere that reminded her of a hit RPG video game from the ‘90s that she saw others play but never played herself. In it, there was a humanoid figure with bronze skin, pointed ears, thick hair, a stocky frame, small hands and feet, and large eyes. The sphere closed, but the figure remained. 

She wanted to scream, but the figure said, “Please don’t scream or freak out. I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to explain some things about one of your children.” 

Curious, Martha replied, “Which of my kids?” 

“The odd one out.” 

“You mean Kaly?” 

“Is that her name? I swear you named her ‘Kalybrari Cookie’.” 

“We did, but she prefers to be called ‘Kaly’ because it’s shorter. Wait. How do you know that?” 

“I understand that name now. I’ve been a sort of guardian angel to her under orders from my master. I’d ask if you have noticed certain body parts she has, but I assume you would have seen them by now, given that you found her when she was about two years old. Now, she’s about eight years old.” 

“Are you referring to her ears, tail, and wings?” 

“…Yes. Also, you’ve probably noticed she’s tiny, and even a normal baby is larger than she is.” 

“I have.” 

“All of those make sense when I reveal the truth about her, which you may have figured out on your own.” 

“Is she not human?” 

The figure was silent, and Martha said, “That silence means she’s not human, doesn’t it?” 

“Yeah, and… D’oh! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Zineas, and I am a servant of the omnipotent goddess Vividaren. I was created to serve the instance of Earth in this universe.” 

“Are-are you serious?! And you said ‘in this universe.’ Does that mean there is more than one universe?” 

“Correct. Each universe has something going for it. This one allows naturally tiny people to exist- I forgot again!” 

“Forgot what?” 

“What I came here to explain! Here it is: Kaly is a member of a species that have named themselves ‘Kinnises’. A single one is called a ‘Kinnis’. Not counting ones with certain mutations, they have mouse ears around the area your adoptive daughter has them, they don’t have ears where humans do, they have tails like those of mice, only smooth instead of hairy or scaly, and they have wings like those of a dragonfly, but they can fold theirs behind their backs. Their hindwings are shorter than their forewings, so folding them causes the forewings to cover the hindwings. Unlike insects, they are born with their wings, but babies cannot fly. They’re also naturally tiny, about 15 times smaller than a human. Using this ratio and the height of the tallest human who ever lived, the tallest one can be is 7.14 inches tall,” 

“That makes a lot more sense than her being a human with a lot of mutations, but I think I figured it out on my own.” 

“I’ll go talk to your husband, then. Goodbye!” 

Zineas vanished in a similar way to how she went there. 

Zander Cookie was in his quarters on board a cruise ship he captained. To his surprise, an identical effect to what he didn’t know happened to his wife appeared before him. Zineas stepped out. 

“Greetings, Zander Cookie.” 

“H-how the hell do you know who I am?!” the captain said. 

“I’ve been a sort of guardian angel to this world, and due to the interests of my master, I’ve focused on your family, as well as two others. I am Zineas, servant of the one true goddess, Vividaren.” 

“Why did you come here?!” 

“Do you know the truth of the heritage of your adoptive daughter?” 

“Kaly?” 

“Yes, her. She isn’t human. Her species, which have dubbed themselves ‘Kinnises’ usually have mouse ears, tails, and dragonfly wings. She’s one of them, as you may remember when you found her in 2014.” 

“That makes sense, actually.” 

About two years after the incident at Wovl’s, to Kaly’s surprise, she got another birthday invitation, this time from Luna. The place listed was Rolly’s Fun Center. When she entered her larger but younger brother’s room, she asked him, “Magnus, what kind of place is Rolly’s Fun Center?” 

Magnus replied, “Uh… I don’t know. If Daddy comes in, ask him. I want to prank call Crawl-Nut again and expose their practices.” 

As if he heard, Zander, who was on a break, came through the door, and he said, “I was called, so I am here to answer your question!” 

She asked, “Daddy, what’s Rolly’s Fun Center?” 

“It’s a combination of a video rental store, an arcade, a pizzeria that also serves ice cream, and a mini golf course. I think you’d like it. I heard what happened at Theo’s party, so I am here to assure you that there are no stiff moving mascots on a stage.” 

She made high-pitched noises of fear, and her father remembered that the animatronic characters were not what scared his adoptive daughter. He assured her, “The place doesn’t have nearly as many brawls. The only kinds of mascots are-” but he caught himself, and stopped, not wanting to ruin the illusion kids would have about people in mascot costumes. She asked, “What were you going to say?” 

“I’ll let you know when you’re older. I’d rather not ruin the place for you.” 

Naturally, this made her more curious, but any attempts to learn more were fruitless. She remembered something she wondered at one point, so she asked, “Daddy, are we the same?” 

Feeling nervous his kid wouldn’t like it if she learned the truth about her origins, he replied, “What do you mean?” 

“Am I a person, or something else?” 

“Of course you’re a person!” 

“But I’m so different to everyone around me. I have these ears, this tail, these wings, and I’m tiny. No one else that I know has those traits, especially the size.” 

He sighed and said, “You are a different species than everyone else that you know. The one you refer to as ‘Mommy’ did not give birth to you. She did give birth to your sister and your brother, and we found and took you in before your brother was born. Your mother and I learned that your species are called ‘Kinnises’.” 

She was still a bit naive, so she wasn’t upset by that revelation like more mature people would likely be. 

Back in school, Kaly found Luna, got her attention, was picked up, and asked her, “Luna, do you want one or both of my siblings to come?” 

“What are they like?” 

“My younger but bigger brother Magnus likes pranks, such as calling some place called ‘Crawl-Nut’ and saying silly things to them. He also wants to ‘expose’ them for something they have done. My big sister Kit knows a lot more about the world than I do, so I respect her even if she sometimes gets on my nerves.” 

“I’d rather you come with just one of your parents, or your big sister.” 

“I’ll go ask her, then.” 

Back at home, she made it to Kit’s room, climbed up to her bed, and found it very comfortable. She managed to resist the temptation to fall asleep long enough for her sister to come, see her, and she asked, “What are you doing there, Kaly?” 

“In school today, I asked Luna, my best friend, if she would be okay with you or Magnus coming along with me to her birthday party. She was okay with you, but she did not want our brother there.” 

“I’m busy, so I can’t come.” 

“… Oh.” 

Realizing that her brother and sister were not coming, Kaly wanted someone to come, so she asked her father, “Daddy, once Luna’s party happens, can you take me there?” 

“Sorry, but I can’t. Cruz, the company I work for, needs me to be a captain of one of their cruise ships.” 

“… Will Mommy be able to take me?” 

“Depends. What day is it on?” 

“It’s on Saturday.” 

“She doesn’t work that day, so she can take you again.” 

The day before the party, once her mother got home from work, Kaly asked her, “What is this town like, Mommy?” 

“Oh, honey, you are so oblivious to the world around you. We live in the town of Peppo. It has multiple churches of different religions. There are churches for Christianity, Judaism, Islam, as well as another religion whose followers believe in a goddess called ‘Vividaren’ who created everything, according to them.” 

“Also, can you take me to Luna’s party?” 

“When will that be?” 

“Tomorrow.” 

“It’s a Saturday, so I have work off. Sure! Want me to be there with you?” 

“Yes!” 

The next day, in the car ride to the party, Kaly was in a pocket of her mother’s pants. The seat belts were way too big for her and wouldn’t help. She remembered that there was an intersection on the way to her school, and there was what she now knew to be a church near one of the corners. She did not have time to think about it too much, as they arrived at Rolly’s soon after. 

Kaly was the first guest to arrive, and Theo arrived about three minutes later. Soon after, Luna’s three other friends showed up. Feeling bored, she looked around, and saw a lot of arcade machines quite different from the Luck-Man machine at Wovl’s. Mr. Burton had ordered an ice cream cake, a pepperoni pizza, a cheese pizza, and multiple pitchers of clear, bubbly soda. After he placed the orders, he used a machine to exchange money for tokens, and like at Wovl’s, a token was equal to a quarter. He said, “Everyone gets ten tokens. Feel free to play games as you like while they’re making the pizza and cake, but once it’s done, come back to this table.” 

Kaly ended up staring at Luna from her spot on the table, realizing what her feelings towards her were, but once the much larger girl noticed, the tiny winged mouse girl looked away in shame. Not realizing what her friend was feeling, the normal sized girl said, “You don’t need to be upset. No one is perfect. Even the best people slip up every now and then. …I noticed when I first met you that you have wings. Are those real?” 

Kaly nodded, so Luna asked, “Can you fly?” 

Kaly tried to fly by beating her wings rapidly, but couldn’t gain height. Upset, she said, “I can’t. It’s so strange. I feel like these wings would be pointless if I couldn’t fly, but since I can’t, why do I have them?” 

Mrs. Burton, Luna’s mother, said, “Maybe you need to grow up before you can fly, tiny girl.” 

She saw her best friend put her hand out in front of her, and she asked, “Since you can’t fly, do you want me to carry you around?” 

“I’ve let my parents hold me, so I know what it’s like. Can I sit on your shoulder?” 

“Wouldn’t that tail get in the way?” 

“It won’t. I’ve sat before without hurting my tail. I can just move it out of the way.” 

“Okay,” Luna decided, and she grabbed her friend in a way that kept her arms and wings pinned. 

Kaly said, “Please be more gentle!” 

“D-does that hurt?” 

“Yes!” 

“O-okay.” 

Luna placed her hand near her shoulder, with Kaly on her palm, and she walked onto it, and decided to stand at first. As her bigger friend walked, the tiny girl was very unstable, so she decided to sit instead. She moved closer to Luna’s head, and as she turned to look at her, Kaly gave her friend a kiss. Her face turned very red, and she set down the girl she had her first kiss with, then ran. Kaly asked to no one in particular, “Did I do something bad?” 

Her mother said, “This is still better than the party at Wovl’s being cut short,” and Kaly did not like those memories she tried to bury. She suddenly said, “Mommy, can we play some games using our tokens?” 

“Sure, sweetie.” 

The first game they decided to play was called Fruit Slicer. It was a game that used a touchscreen to move a blade, and the objective was to hit the fruit with it, cutting them in two. There were power-ups in the form of bananas with different colors. One calculated the points earned in a period after slicing it, doubled it, and gave the player those points. Another made a lot of fruit come from onto the screen from the side. The third made the fruit go up and down much slower, and also froze the timer. There were bombs to avoid, and they deducted ten points upon being hit. Once time ran out, a special fruit entered the screen that could and should be sliced multiple times. It also gave them an interesting fact about some fruit after every game. 

The next game they played was called Captialism: The Board Game: The Arcade Game. It took four tokens or a dollar to play, and the player did five “rolls” around the board of thirty two normal spaces and four corners by spinning a wheel. The more powerful the spin, the farther the icon to determine the roll went. Landing on nearly anything rewarded money, though there were some things better than others. For landing on a space for the first time, a hotel was placed there. Some spaces had hotels on them from the start. They rewarded a lot of in-game money for landing on them. For getting a hotel on every space of a color set, the player earned a “Capitalist Bonus” and plenty of money. If they landed on the second corner they could land on (as they started on one), they spun a wheel that could either give them a multiplier bonus at the end or thousands of dollars. The space right before the starting space gave a bonus of $10,000. The third corner said “Go to Jail” but due to the nature of the game, players had an infinite supply of cards that read, “Get Out of Jail Free” on them. Passing or landing on the starting space rewarded $200, and if they landed on it, they got a bonus roll. Once the five rolls were up, the player was prompted to either insert four more tokens or end the game. Wanting to play other things, Kaly chose to end the game after the first set of five. If she had paid up, she would get another five rolls. Once those were spent, they would have had to pay up for a final set of five rolls or end the game. If they paid for all of the rolls, that would be 12 tokens, or $3.00. Once the final set of rolls was expended, the game would end. 

As they wandered, they saw an arcade machine that claimed to have three games on it. Curious, Kaly asked to go there, and her mother accepted. It took tokens, and there was a choice of three games from the 1980s. The first one was Dumb Ape, a classic from 1981 that let players control a carpenter who needed to rescue his girlfriend from an ape that kept climbing a building still under construction. Kaly did not even get past the first level, so she was discouraged. Her mother said, “Oddly, for the majority of ports to home consoles, the second level is removed. Maybe the home consoles it was ported to were so weak that they couldn’t handle the layout of that level. Then again, the game did get involved in a lawsuit that may have led to them not re-releasing the arcade version.”Kaly did not know what a lawsuit was, so she said, “Mommy, what is a ‘lawsuit’?” 

Martha avoided the question. 

The second game on the machine was Dumb Ape Jr., where the carpenter, named Oregin, had locked the ape from the previous game in a cage, and the player played as his son, who needed to climb vines and jump his way to victory. One vine looked like it would be close enough to grab, but it was just barely out of reach, and the ape fell too far, costing Kaly a life. She didn’t get past the first level in that, either. 

The third and final game on the machine, Oregin Bros., starred Oregin and his brother Reflecgin, who were in a room with a lot of pipes that enemies came out of. Kaly realized that the way to defeat enemies was to jump to hit the ground from underneath them, then run into them. She got farther, but after losing her last life, she realized that two people could play together. She asked, “Mommy, can we play this game together?” 

“Sure!” 

They inserted another token, and that was enough for both of them. They got farther, and after their inevitable loss, her mother commented, “We could have tried to play against each other, but I didn’t think you’d like that. Anyway, we’re out of tokens. Let’s go back to the party table. Hopefully, your friend feels better now.” 

As they walked near, Luna saw Kaly, and looked nervous. Kaly was scared that she had ruined her party, but she noticed her and asked, “Kaly, can I give you a hug?” 

She was surprised because did not expect her to say that, but she accepted, jumping into her breasts. Kaly said really fast, “So soft and warm and I can feel your heartbeat! AH!” 

Luna asked, “I know we’re a bit young for this, but… Do you want to be my girlfriend?” 

“What does that mean?” 

“We’d be holding hands and sitting next to each other when we have lunch at school. We can also hug each other more.” 

Kaly understood what this meant, and because she felt romantic feelings towards Luna, she said, “Yes! I’ll be your girlfriend!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By now, the story takes place in 2019, the same year as Hopeful Future. By the end, Kaly is about 9 years old, though she is physically 11 because of Kinnises’ faster aging. I decided that Kit is 13 years old by then, and Magnus, her younger brother, is 8 by then. Their parents had Kit when Martha, the older of the two, was 26 years old, and Zander, who is younger than his wife, was 25 years old. Zander is 38 by the end of the story, and Martha is 39 by then. They gave birth to Magnus after Kaly’s biological parents gave birth to her. That means Magnus is younger despite being much larger.
> 
> Kaly is lesbian for Luna. I decided that I wanted a lesbian heroine in one of my stories. In an upcoming story that takes place in a different universe, the main characters are a gay couple.
> 
> Rolly’s Fun Center is supposed to be like Rocky’s Fun House, Rocky’s Pizzeria, and a video rental store in one. There is one I frequented that has an arcade, pizzeria, glow in the dark mini golf course, and a video rental store all in the same building. That is or was called "The People's Choice Family Fun Center" and used to have all-you-can-eat pizza on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, they stopped it, so I went less often. I don't think I've gone since the COVID-19 pandemic was taken seriously.
> 
> Fruit Slicer is supposed to be the arcade version of Fruit Ninja. Specifically, it’s meant to be Fruit Ninja FX 2, an improved arcade version closer to the arcade mode in the mobile app.
> 
> Capitalism: The Board Game is my worlds’ version of Monopoly. Like it, it came out in 1935, based on an earlier game made as a protest to big businesses. The creators of that game handed the patent to Whirl Sisters, my worlds’ version of Parker Brothers. A man who died a long time prior to the events of the more distant prequel that has not come out at the time of uploading this claimed to have invented the game. Even when the truth that someone else invented it was made public, not many know it. The classic set of rules are the same as those of real Monopoly. The mascot is Mr. Tafraw instead of Mr. Monopoly. I’ll leave you to figure out why I named him that if you haven’t already.
> 
> Capitalism: The Board Game: The Arcade Game is based on the Monopoly arcade game, which is quite inaccurate to the real board game. The way I described the gameplay of it here fits that game as well.
> 
> The arcade machine with three games on it was based on a real arcade machine that debuted in 2004, to my surprise when I researched it. I thought it was from the 1980s because that was when all of the games in it debuted in arcades. Anyway, Dumb Ape is my worlds’ version of Donkey Kong, Dumb Ape Jr. is my worlds’ version of Donkey Kong Jr., and Oregin Bros. is my worlds’ version of Mario Bros. The real arcade machine has Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros. all included in it.


	4. Kaly's Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaly makes four new friends of varied backgrounds and invites them, Theo, and Luna to a birthday party at her house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three chapters in a row of birthday parties. This is the last one for this story. I promise.

For months, Kaly and Luna had stayed loyal girlfriends. She had also made four new friends in school. One of them, Han Chen, as he preferred to be called, was an immigrant from China. He struggled to understand the people at school, so he felt lonely. One day, Kaly approached him and asked him, “Do you want to be my friend?” 

Chen did not understand her, so someone who knew how to translate explained it to him. He asked in Chinese, “Why do you have mouse ears, a tail, and wings? Why are you tiny?” 

She did not understand what he said, but after a translator explained it, she said clearly, “I was born with these. I was always smaller than even a normal baby. It turns out I’m-” but she stopped herself, feeling like revealing that she wasn’t human was too much information, even if he had already figured it out. A teacher said, “Kaly! Class is still in session! You too, Chen!” 

He was confused as to why they referred to him by his first name, as he had expected they would call him by his surname. 

Her fourth friend was Emilio Morgura, a boy whose family moved from Mexico to Peppo. When they met, most of their class liked to bully him. Kaly noticed this and realized that she was far too weak to defeat the bullies, so she reported them to staff. 

Once Emilio knew she saved him from his bullies, he said to her, “I’d like us to be friends, miss…-” 

She realized he didn’t know her name, so she said, “Kaly.” 

“-miss Kaly. What do you say?” 

“Okay! This will help both of us out!” 

Her next friend was a girl named Deliana Davis. She was going to comment on some of the traits she had inherited from her ethnicity, but some teachers knew what she would say, so they interrupted, “Don’t comment on that! It would be rude to do so due to how people like Deliana were treated throughout history and even now!” 

“Huh? What happened?” 

“… It’s not appropriate for your age level, and you wouldn’t understand. You’ll learn later in school.” 

The next school day, Kaly decided that she would make up for that any way she could. She asked her, “Can we be friends?” 

“Do you promise not to be mean to be because of my heritage?” 

“What does that word mean?” 

“Your heritage is related to your ancestors, so things involving your parents, their parents, and so on.” 

“I promise I will.” 

Deliana gave Kaly a big hug. She was going to ask about her ears, tail, and wings, but decided that would be hypocritical. 

Her most recent friend, whose family were immigrants from Japan, preferred to go by Uzumaki Genjo. Kaly had managed to befriend her despite not being able to understand Japanese. They mostly communicated with text, as the human girl was better at reading and understanding English than speaking it. 

The anniversary of the day Kaly’s adoptive parents found her was approaching, and since she forgot her actual birthday and her family didn't know, they celebrated that like her birthday. Kaly decided to invite all six of her friends. 

Martha asked, “Dear, where do you want this party to be?” 

“I’ve been thinking right here, in our house!” 

She did not argue with her daughter, suspecting that the events at Wovl’s had traumatized her from wanting to go back there. She did not say anything, not wanting to make it worse. Kaly made invitations to hand out in class, and she managed to give one to all six of her friends. 

Once she got home, she saw Magnus calling someone and heard him say, “My name is Over Peanese, and I live at 1994 Complete Air in San Fransokyo.” 

The party went far smoother than what had happened at Wovl’s. All six of them gave her presents. Before she opened them, they ate cake that Martha prepared herself. After learning what allergies each guest had, she made sure not to include those in the cake. They complimented her cooking, but despite that, she was still looking away in shame, fidgeting with her fingers and muttering to herself. 

Kaly asked, “Mommy, what’s wrong?” 

“My daughter, it’s just… cooking and gender put together are a very touchy subject for me. In the past, men were the ones to leave the house for work, while women stayed at home to raise kids and cook. Some people think that all women can cook. That’s not necessarily true. When a man is a great chef, people notice it more. When a woman is a great chef, people think it’s just because she’s a woman. I’m not fond of that. It also applies for characters in fiction that are terrible chefs. The implication if a woman ends up being a terrible chef is that she fails at one womanly duty, and I’m not fond of that. If a man in fiction is a terrible chef, the implication could be that men aren’t supposed to cook. I’m not fond of it either way.” 

Kaly did not know what some of the works her mother used meant, but she didn’t ask or continue eating the cake because she was full very fast. 

After that, Emilio saw that the Cookie family had a copy of Capitalism: The Board Game. He pointed to the box and asked, “Can we play that, Mrs. Cookie?” 

Kit, who was observing without saying anything the whole time, said, “It’ll take a long time, unless some people don’t want to play. Besides, the rules only allow for two to six players, and I count one little sister and her six friends.” 

Kaly said, “I’ll play because it’s my party, and I’d like Han, Emilio, Deliana, and Uzumaki to play with me.” 

Emilio asked, “Who are ‘Han’ and ‘Uzumaki’?” 

“Those are just how the ones the teachers call ‘Chen’ and ‘Genjo’ prefer I call them.” 

“I see.” 

Since Kaly didn’t know the rules, she looked through them. Along with what it called “Classic Rules” it also mentioned a “Speed Die” and six ideas for possible house rules. The Speed Die had at least a single “1” side, a “2” side, and a “3” side, along with a side that had the mascot of the game, Mr. Tafraw, and a side with a bus on it. The rules said that rolling on Mr. Tafraw meant they had to move to the next unowned property from the space they would have landed on if the results of just the two white dice were used. If there were no unowned properties, they had to move to the nearest unmortgaged property. In the event that all properties were mortgaged, Mr. Tafraw would be useless and their roll would be normal. Doubles would override Mr. Tafraw. The bus was far simpler, as it allowed a player to use the results of both or just one of the dice they rolled. To get the Speed Die, the players needed to pass “GO” for the first time. Doing it any time earned $200, but doing it the first time gave the player that did it the Speed Die for the rest of the game. 

The first listed idea for a house rule it gave said that any money paid for fines or taxes gets saved into a “pool” of money that anyone can collect by landing on Free Parking, which would give it an actual purpose other than being a safe space. 

The second listed idea for a house rule said that, when landing on a free property, it can only be bought through an auction. In addition, it has a second rule that makes it so players in jail couldn’t collect rent. 

The third listed idea for a house rule said that, when someone landed on GO, they would have the choice to either collect $400 or move their token to anywhere on the board. A secondary rule that came with that said that, when a player landed on a Chance space, they could choose not do draw a card. It specified that Community Chest cards still had to be drawn, and that merely passing GO still rewarded $200. 

The fourth house rule idea listed was an alternate win condition, saying that the first player to reach $3000 in capital won the game. 

The fifth house rule idea listed said that, when two ones were rolled, a player received $1000. 

The sixth and final listed idea for a house rule said that players didn’t necessarily have to own all properties of the same color set to build houses. It also added that you didn’t need to build four houses before building a hotel. 

Kaly decided that she wanted to use the Speed Die, the first listed house rule, the third, and the fifth. 

The game went on for over an hour. Kaly was the first one out, but she didn’t hold it against her friends. Instead, she decided to keep watching, though from Luna’s shoulder. Luna was watching since the start of the game, and her tiny girlfriend decided to tuck herself into her sleeve against her neck. 

The next one to go bankrupt in the game was Uzumaki. She did not know what mortgaged properties did, so she ended up mortgaging a lot of her properties to gain money, realized they couldn’t collect rent, and unmortgaged them at a net loss. The third place player in that game was Han, who ran out of properties to mortgage and owed more money than he had. He was okay with not winning, and he decided to watch the final two players. The final one to go out was Emilio, who took his defeat well. Deliana won, but she did not rub it in. 

The time came for Kaly to open presents. Luna got her two dresses. One was plain red and had long sleeves. The other was a beige color with an orange chest. She said, “I based these off of the dresses that the heroine of a movie I think you’d like wears.” 

Kaly replied, “Thanks!” 

Theo got her two onesies that she didn’t recognize. One had a yellow hood, a mostly blue body with some white and red, and the wrist cuffs and feet were yellow. The other had the same hood and cuffs, but had a red and white top with a blue bottom. 

Han got her a core rule book for an iconic tabletop role-playing game. The book weighed far more than she did, so she decided that she would need help from someone who was a normal size when using it. 

Emilio got her a toy Triceratops. It was around her size, if not larger, but she liked it anyway. 

Deliana gave Kaly a plush video game character that was larger than she was. She liked it, thinking she could lay on it and rest. 

Uzumaki got her a kimono and footwear she made to fit her. Kaly wondered, “How am I going to fit my wings outside of this?” 

The larger girl struggled to explain in English what she would have to do, and Kaly asked, “I’ll have to keep my wings inside of this, won’t I?” 

She nodded, confirming what the tiny girl had thought. She was not happy about this, but accepted the gifts. 

The party went well, but that night, Kaly had a dream where there was a scary voice saying, “The traveling robot is off to kill. Its target is a tiny girl.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUN! Sinister.
> 
> I couldn't think of a way to have conflict without having it be serious. That rhyming won't be normal.
> 
> Han Chen and Uzumaki Genjo are immigrants from China and Japan, respectively. Their names there are listed with the family name, then their given name, because that is the correct order in those languages.
> 
> The dresses Luna gave Kaly for her birthday are supposed to be recreations of the ones Arrietty wears in Studio Ghibli’s anime movie adaptation of The Borrowers. It has at least three names that aren’t translations of each other in the versions for different countries. I think the original Japanese version translates to The Borrower Arrietty, the UK dub is simply named Arrietty, and the US dub distributed by Disney is named The Secret World of Arrietty. It's my favorite movie of all time for personal reasons. I decided that all of the movies by Studio Ghibli are in-universe movies in my worlds.
> 
> I’m pretty sure there was supposed to be a reference with the plush video game character Kaly got for her birthday from Deliana, but I forgot what it was supposed to be. I’ll leave it up to the imagination.
> 
> The onesies Theo got Kaly is supposed to be the onesies or costumes of All Might that Izuku “Deku” Midoriya from Boku No Hero Academia/My Hero Academia wore in flashbacks from when he was four years old. The first one described was based on All Might’s Golden Age costume from the time he burst through a door and said, “I am here!” in either English or Japanese, depending on what version you’re watching. The other was from the time he needed to pick his hero name, and he got a flashback where he wore a different onesie. That onesie was based on All Might’s Silver Age costume.
> 
> The fake address “994 Complete Air” is a reference to Sonic 3 & Knuckles and arguably the two best unofficial ways to play it. “Complete” is a reference to the ROM hack Sonic 3 Complete, which is a Sonic ROM hack I have a high opinion of. “Air” is a reference to Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited aka Sonic 3 A.I.R., an enhanced port of Sonic 3 & Knuckles for PC. “994” is a reference to 1994, the year both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were both first released. Magnus was not alive at the time; he looked it up for fun and decided to use it.
> 
> Disney and/or Marvel fans should understand why Magnus chose to say he lived in San Fransokyo. By the way, I haven’t read Marvel’s original comics; I’ve only seen Disney’s film Big Hero 6. It’s also because I’m not entirely sure where Sonic 3 & Knuckles was developed, as Sonic 2 and Sonic CD, the two Classic Sonic games before it, were developed at the same time, 2 in the US and CD in Japan.
> 
> Capitalism: The Board Game is my worlds’ version of Monopoly. Like it, it came out in 1935, based on an earlier game made as a protest to big businesses. The creators of that game handed the patent to Whirl Sisters, my worlds’ version of Parker Brothers. A man who died a long time prior to the events of the more distant prequel that has not come out at the time of uploading this, claimed to have invented the game. Even when the truth that someone else invented it was made public, not many know it. The classic set of rules are the same as those of real Monopoly. The mascot is Mr. Tafraw instead of Mr. Monopoly. I’ll leave you to figure out why I named him that if you haven’t already. The version of the game the Cookie family owns has a Speed Die that works the same as the real game, and the listed ideas for house rules were taken from the video game Monopoly Plus. I know that game isn’t the best when it comes to its online play (at least on the Steam version), and you can’t even play with more than one house rule at a time without resorting to unintended means.


	5. Professional Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to Kaly fearing what might happen based on the dream she had at the end of Chapter 4, her mother takes her to therapy.
> 
> She later has another dream that makes her even more scared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and the next chapter will have a darker tone than the rest of the story.
> 
> Like Hopeful Future. I can't seem to make conflict in stories like this without it getting dark. That might be an issue due to mood whiplash. I want to avoid that.

The dream Kaly had scared her to the point where she feared going outside. Each time she brought it up, though, Martha and Kit said, “It was just a dream, Kaly. Get over it.” 

She usually replied, “It didn’t seem like something my mind would come up with on its own.” 

She became alert for threats to her, and this took a hit into her mental health. She was almost nine years old, but she was still not doing well in school, still mostly getting ‘C’s and ‘D’s. It wasn’t because she was a bad student, but because she had several fears going through her mind. 

Martha noticed her middle child feeling more and more upset. She decided that the best option was therapy for her. 

Her therapist, Dr. Brear, quickly gained the trust of the tiny girl after a few sessions. Once she knew she could trust him, she brought up while she was on the arm of a chair, “I’ve been terrified of a lot of bad things that could happen to me.” 

He asked, “What kind of things?” 

“Well, it started when a p-p…-” 

“A party?” 

As she started crying, she said, “Yeah… I just really, really don’t want to talk about it.” 

“Where was it?” 

“W-Wovl’s-” 

“Wovl’s Pizza and Games?” 

“Th-there.” Kaly started crying more, so she wanted to be held in a human hand, as her parents did that to her to comfort her. Dr. Brear let her climb onto his hand, and he held her in a way so that they were eye level. 

“What happened?” 

“I-I heard things breaking, and I saw people fighting. The rest was a scary blur of events as the birthday boy, who was my friend Theo, his family, the other guests and I, and our families all fled the building.” 

“I can imagine what that would be like for a young kid.” 

“I-I said to myself that I would never go back there.” 

“I don’t blame you. When did that happen?” 

“Over two years ago.” 

“Is that it?” 

“That started it, but during the night after my most recent birthday party, which was otherwise a good day for me, I heard a scary voice saying something in rhyme about some robot targeting me. It didn’t feel like a dream I would normally have. I’ve been scared to leave my house ever since. My family didn’t believe it was serious when I told them about it.” 

“What can we do to help you get through those things?” 

“I try to suppress what happened at Wovl’s, nearly three years ago.” 

When Martha picked up Kaly, she saw that her tiny daughter had tears on her shirt. She was upset at Dr. Brear, but the tiny girl countered, “I told him about what happened. I did this to myself.” 

Despite the therapy, it was not much help. Kaly didn’t know how to apply strategies to get over her fears, so she continued to live in fear of what could happen. One night in October, during a dream, a feminine voice said to Kaly, “A threat to your species was acquitted of the criminal charges against him. I will not interfere, so good luck surviving! You’re going to need it!” 

Kaly did not end up getting over her problems, so she decided the best thing to do was to be vigilant. This continued for months until the year and decade turned. In December, China reported a new kind of virus, but they were able to contain it effectively, banning travel to or from the country. There were news reports that China was killing people who tested positive in the hopes that corpses didn’t transmit it, and certain news sources used this as fuel to the anti-Communist fire that was burning for over seventy years. This brought Kaly’s emotional state further down. 

She continued to stay vigilant until late January, where some of her fears became reality as the country was plagued by one of the other problems that her dreams warned her about…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Which issue brought up in Kaly's dreams will come after her? The one she had at the end of Chapter 4, or the one she had in this chapter? I promise I'll eventually get to both, even the one that I don't cover a week from now.
> 
> I made it go past the end of Hopeful Future and into 2020. However, China handles the COVID-19 pandemic far better than they did in real life here. That is because, at the time I am writing this, the pandemic is still ongoing. I decided to make China KILL the infected and ban all travel to or from the country because I wouldn't put it past a Communist dictator like the one in charge of present-day China to kill their own citizens to contain a disease outbreak. I assumed the logical consequence of that would be capitalist countries using that to make their citizens oppose Communism even more than they already did.


	6. Robot Hitman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of the scary things Kaly's dreams warned her about becomes reality and comes after her...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to make the transition from cute, lighthearted content to darker material smooth. I don't want what happens to be too jarring.
> 
> Possible Trigger Warnings: Attempted murder

On Tuesday, January 28th, 2020, Kaly got home from a normal school day. She got home before her siblings or parents were home, and her father was on a cruise ship. To her horror, one of the dreams she had that warned her of something bad coming her way seemed to become real. After Kaly somehow managed to open the front door and enter her house on her own, she heard a voice that did not sound natural saying, “Target located. DIE!” 

She hid inside her house after hearing gunshots, and she couldn’t close the door because she ran from it. The voice shouted in that same artificial tone, “Fleeing is futile. Save everyone time and do not run.” 

She ran to a phone and called the police. She said, “Someone or something is trying to kill me! My name is Kalybrari Cookie, I’m a minor, and I live at 618 Rotatriple Lane!” 

The voice on the other end replied, “Got that, sending help right away!” 

The door opened right as she ended the call, and she realized that the voice belonged to a humanoid robot. It looked to be made out of steel and was wearing what looked to be a backpack, a military helmet that looked foreign to her, a military vest, and a utility belt. Its feet were one big clump. It had a mouth without teeth or lips. Where a human had eyes, it had black, circular cameras. It had two nostrils attached directly to the front of its head instead of a nose. Its hands each had five fingers, each with multiple joints, though they did not have nails or claws. It said, “I am H1T-34N, designed to kill.” 

It saw Kaly and readied a gun to her. It made the mistake of doing it slowly so its master, who was watching and listening via a real-time camera and microphone located where H1T-34N would have a navel if it were human, would enjoy it more. As it was slowly pulling the trigger to maximize the satisfaction of its sadistic master, police officers showed up and tried to restrain it. It got a shot off, but it missed completely, hitting a wall. The sound rang in her ears for the rest of the day. It fought back with more strength than the police had expected, requiring more officers. Eventually, they managed to handcuff it and put it in their police car so they could try to question it, or at least find out why it was trying to kill just one girl. Kaly somehow noticed a white sphere with some pink and red appeared around H1T-34N as the police car was driving off, and she could see the robot in it. The sphere disappeared, and so did the robot. 

When her family came home, they had heard what happened, and they were happy that their tiny girl was okay to the point where they struggled to verbalize it. Kaly, however, felt that she had even less of a reason to go outside. It also fueled distrust of strangers, a fear that H1T-34N could try to kill her again due to what she suspected was his escape, and affected her negatively. She developed a fear of nature, which was not helped by her parents keeping her indoors for years. 

Zander heard of what happened while he was on a voyage on a cruise ship, so he couldn’t have helped her. However, as soon as the voyage ended, he rushed back home, knowing that his adoptive daughter was still alive. He gave her a hug and said, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t have been there when you were in danger.” 

Kaly reached her arms out, which he knew meant that she wanted to be held in a comforting hand. He held her and said, “I don’t really get to hold you that often. Your mom holds you more often because she’s around you more.” 

Kaly asked, “Dad, why are you always busy?” 

He replied, “Being on a cruise ship means that I rarely get time off to see you. I’m really good at being a captain, so I’m kind of stuck in that if I want to keep generating income for the family.” 

“Doesn’t Mom work, though?” 

“Yeah, but due to sexism, she doesn’t get paid as much as a man who has the same position as her would.” 

“What does that word mean?” 

“I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got the idea for H1T-34N from Terminator. It does not look exactly like any model of it, and it is far more simple.
> 
> Kaly’s address number is a reference to two related things. One of them is the belief that the Number of the Beast is not 666, but is 616. The other is that house addresses rarely, if ever use 666, instead skipping it. The housing division where Kaly lives believed that 616 and 666 were both bad luck, so they skipped it in the house the Cookie family lives in. In regards to the street she lives on, I got “Rotatriple” from Rotation Battles and Triple Battles in the Pokémon series. Both of those were introduced in Pokémon Black and Pokémon White, though Rotation Battles are showcased more in Black while Triple Battles are showcased more in White. Both special kinds of battles were removed from the series in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, perhaps due to player feedback or simply their rarity in the games.
> 
> This will have two more chapters on July 21st (Hug a Giant Day) and August 11th (Hug a Tiny Day). So will Hopeful Future.

**Author's Note:**

> That's a wrap!
> 
> I got the name “Kalybrari” from one playthrough of a Wii U Wheel of Fortune video game on the collaboration YouTube channel TheRunawayGuys. Look up “wheel of fortune chugga’s bad guesses” on YouTube and watch Part 1 of that to learn more. I adapted that to make it less obvious where I got it from. I decided that her real name was too long, so she preferred the nickname “Kaly.”
> 
> If you are coming from when all four stories in this universe are out, up next in the "Next Work" option is Hopeful Future, the original.
> 
> The next one that will be released is an objective prequel to both this and Hopeful Future. The entire thing takes place over less than a month in the summer of 2007, at least according to seasons as they are in the Northern Hemisphere.
> 
> Links to some notes AO3 won't let me upload on DeviantArt and Wattpad: 
> 
> DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/duscara/art/Lucky-Discovery-supplemental-notes-862277440
> 
> Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/986898262-lucky-discovery-supplemental-notes


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